Equipment may be sometimes outfitted with camera units for capturing and storing video data of the environment around a vehicle. For example, law enforcement vehicles may be provided with “dashboard cams” to record a view out the front windshield of the vehicle, to capture video data of interactions between a law enforcement officer and (for example) the occupants of another vehicle. As another example, passenger automobiles may be provided with fixed-position rear view cameras for capturing a video stream of the region directly behind the automobile, which is displayed on a console display screen to aid the driver in safely backing up.
In addition to in-vehicle cameras, transportation networks (referring to infrastructure for movement of vehicles, e.g., railroad track networks for rail vehicles, or highway and other road networks for automobiles, semi-trailer trucks, and other on-highway vehicles) are sometimes outfitted with wayside cameras for capturing video data of the transportation network. For example, a camera may be affixed to a mast at the side of a highway, to capture video data of the highway for traffic tracking and reporting purposes.
Certain systems (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles) may be configured for the wireless transmission of camera data (e.g., video data or other image data) from a camera to an off-board or other location away from the camera. For this purpose, the system is provided with an antenna and a transmitter. Other unmanned aerial vehicles may use antennas to transmit electromagnetic signals to detect a characteristic of the environment external to the vehicle. Current antennas are bulky and transmit data at relatively low bandwidths. This may result in signal “collisions” and/or limitations on how much and what type of data is captured. It may be desirable to have an antenna that is smaller/lighter and higher bandwidth than existing antennas.